1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a compact high-quality system for simulating real world visual scenes, with the capability of making simulated objects appear at a range of distances extending to infinity.
2. Description of Related Art
So-called infinity display elements, such as the infinity display system available from the assignee of the present application, are well-known structures for presenting, in simulators, images that appear to be at great distances. The principal optical components were invented by me a number of years ago and are described in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,443,858, 3,940,203, 4,163,542, and 4,708,438. The disclosures of these patents are incorporated herein by reference. In accordance with the technology disclosed in the aforementioned patents, one may employ a conventional beamspliter mirror physically shaped to be a portion of a sphere, a monochromatic holographic analog of such a spherical mirror, or a full color red-green-blue (or RGB) planar holographic spherical analog beamsplitter element to holographically perform the full color function of a conventional spherical beamnsplitter element.
Generally, such systems operate to simulate a real world scene by presenting a view of a model to an optical array. Typically, in the case of aircraft or marine simulators, the model is a scale model of an aircraft or ship, presented against a background which may be a projected image, reprinted image, a cathode ray tube image, for the like. The background is thus part of the model. Other model elements may be silhouettes, rain, fog, the moon, the sun or any other objects or conditions which one wishes to simulate. The optics in such systems are designed to take light from objects in the model which are meant to be simulated at very great distances and present them to the viewer as collimated light bundles, thus making them appear to be at or near infinity. Likewise, the optics cause light rays of other objects, not meant to the great distances, to depart from the collimated light bundles by an amount proportional to their desired apparent closeness to the observer within the simulator.